A judge has dropped the charges against the Boston lawyer arrested for taking cell phone video of police arresting a teenager. Not only that, but he specifically cited the First Amendment has his reason for doing so. Good for him. More, please.

I’m betting that the smoking license passes. The British government has already banned smoking in all pubs and restaurants, they have socialized medicine (so they’re likely to see it as a cost saving move), they’re inherent nanny statists, they’ve never seen a tax or a business regulation they don’t like, and smokers are an easy and unsympathetic group to beat up on.

On the more useless ideas the British could come up with, the smoking license tops them all. This guy should try and get some brains from the scarecrow, becasue he has more than this. But knowing the nanny state in Britain, it probably will pass.

Am I the only one on the face of the planet whose insurance premiums have never gone down no matter how many times someone always states that a law or regulation will lead to lower medical bills?

God I hate people who think they know what’s best for everybody else? And he used libertarian in his argument? What turnip truck did this bozo fall off of.

Regarding the smoking licence (license, whatever): I’m American and I live in London. A pack of cigarettes can cost as high as £6.00 ($12.00, roughly), and most of that cost is tax — something like 87%. With approx. 60 million people living in the UK, it is estimated that 24% of Britons and residents are smokers. The UK garners billions upon billions of pounds sterling ever year just from those taxes, a figure so high that it is greater than the annual GDP of many countries. That’s just background — we won’t even cover things like the congestion charge and the rising prices of public transport, etc.

Still, a licence to smoke cannot ever work because it fails to consider two very important aspects of the UK’s economy: tourism and business travellers. If you are not allowed to buy tobacco unless you possess a licence, how would tourists or business people, who smoke, buy cigarettes while here? You are only allowed to bring in a limited amount of tobacco with you when you enter the country, so you could feasibly bring enough to last through your holiday. But what if you stay for longer than a week? What if you’re here for a month on business? Are you going to be prevented from buying tobacco because you’re a foreigner and don’t have a licence? How could you possibly enforce this absurdity?

Moreover, a licence will ultimately increase the illicit sales of counterfeit tobacco products (or the illegal sale of legitimate products), and criminality in general. It doesn’t take a huge leap of imagination to see the potential for abuse.

Finally, no doubt a licence provision will include that anyone with a licence who merely gives tobacco (perhaps even just one cigarette) to an unlicenced person will be fined and punished, perhaps even get jail time for multiple offences. Imagine it.

A licence to smoke is untenable and simply cannot work even in a nanny state such as England.

Disclosure: I smoke. I know exactly the potential for harm I am doing to myself by smoking – I am informed of the risks. I choose to smoke anyway. Why must I constantly be punished, taxed, and berated for choosing to do something that is, at present, legal.

PS: I have been physically assaulted in the street by rabid anti-smokers in London on more than one occasion. I have been verbally assaulted more times than I can count. The anti-smoking sentiment is not sentiment at all but a growing, violent movement of oppression.